Arson investigation narrowing on woman as suspect

The woman authorities believe set fire to the Fircrest apartment complex early Monday morning may also have set several fires at two apartment complexes and another structure in Merced, according to Detective Sgt. Jason Caudillo of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities have identified a woman between the ages of 25 and 30 who lived at the Fircrest apartments as a person of interest in the ongoing arson investigation, but so far don't have enough evidence to make an arrest, according to Caudillo. Her name wasn't released.

"We're trying to establish direct, physical evidence to bring forward to the prosecution, either through laboratory testing or witness statements," Caudillo said Tuesday.

Authorities questioned the woman, who denied setting the fires, he said.

A camera set up on a building across the street from the burned apartments points at the complex. Caudillo said it had been there several months, and the Sheriff's Office and fire investigators were in the process Tuesday of reviewing video of the events leading up to the fire.

Caudillo said the woman had lived in the Fircrest apartment building for about six months, and is believed to have set between four and five fires at each of two apartment complexes where she lived in Merced, along with a fire that completely burned another structure, between 2008 and 2010.

She was never arrested.

"There's a history of her being the reporting person in most of those instances," Caudillo said. "It's not uncommon for an arsonist to be the first person to report it."

If evidence can be found to support the current theory, the fire set at about midnight Sunday at the Fircrest apartment complex would be the 13th fire the same person has set locally since October, he said.

Two of those were vehicle fires, one in October and one last week, Feb. 26. One of them was in a vehicle associated with the suspected arsonist, according to Caudillo. The other vehicle was parked in front of the apartment complex, he said.

The other fires were small, and had been set in the stairwell in front of apartments five and seven, an area that faces Fircrest Drive. The early Monday morning blaze was ignited in the stairwell on the other side of the building, which faces away from the street, according to Caudillo.

The fires started happening around the time she moved to the apartment complex about six months ago, he said.

"We were getting about one a week," Caudillo said of the fires at and near the Fircrest apartment complex. "There was one or two times when two occurred in one night, and they were all centered around one place."

Cotton balls soaked in an accelerant were common evidence at the Fircrest apartment complex fires, he said. On one occasion, cotton balls had been stuffed into a hole bored in the siding outside apartments five and seven. Another time, investigators found them inside a light fixture in the roof.

The fires stopped in December, shortly after the security camera -- which Caudillo said "stuck out like a sore thumb" -- was set up across the street. The car fire last week, he said, was likely a test.

The Monday fire burned through four units and ultimately destroyed eight apartments from smoke and water damage. Eleven people went to the hospital with smoke inhalation injuries and injuries from jumping out of second-story windows to escape the flames, which had engulfed the stairwell right outside their front doors, fire officials said.

On Monday morning, 51 people were evacuated from the apartment complex's 50 units.

The fire spread at an unusually quick rate, helped in part by the fact that the building had no sprinkler system, because they weren't required when the building was built, according to Ukiah Valley Fire District Capt. Justin Buckingham.

"The first engine that responded could see the glow from the apartment complex," he said. "As they pulled into the driveway, the whole stairwell area was on fire, side to side and top to bottom, and the fire had already extended through the roof. It's not normal for a fire to progress that fast."

An arson-sniffing dog from the Brooktrails Fire Department alerted on several areas at the scene, indicating that a fire accelerant was used, according to Buckingham

"The first hit was outside apartment No. 4," he said, adding that the dog sniffed the accelerant on the floor at the threshold outside the door. "Accelerant was also used on the stairs leading to the upstairs apartments, which is why people had to evacuate out their windows."

All 50 apartments in the complex were cleared out, and 51 people were evacuated, including 11 people who went to the hospital with minor injuries. An emergency Red Cross shelter set up at Ukiah High School on Monday night housed 42 people, a number that grew to 49 when people were released from the hospital.

Shelter manager Jennifer Jones said Tuesday morning that 29 people had stayed Monday night at the shelter, not all of whom lived in the eight destroyed apartments. Power was restored early Monday for the majority of the apartments, but four of them had been without power until Monday afternoon, she said.

The Red Cross brought in 10 case workers to help people find housing Tuesday, she said. Jones said the shelter was staffed through at least 7 a.m. today.

Willie Bence, who took over as shelter manager Tuesday evening, said he didn't know how many people would be staying overnight.

Ukiah High School has been providing breakfast and lunch on campus for the evacuees, and Plowshares was providing dinner Tuesday night, according to Red Cross spokeswoman Ellen Maremont Silver.

Anyone who wants to donate money, time or supplies is urged to call the Red Cross at 577-7600. Donations of clothing and supplies can also be dropped off at Saint Mary of the Angels Church, located at 900 South Oak St., 462-1431.

"We're looking for things like pots, pans, microwaves, tables, chairs, bed frames, things like that," Bence said, adding that the community filled the need for clothing and shoes. Dining room sets should be un-upholstered.

The abundance of donations had become "a logistical nightmare" by Tuesday morning, according to Jones, who noted that the Red Cross does not accept donated clothing or furnishings, but instead partners with local organizations to coordinate that. A group had dropped off a sizable donation of clothing and shoes at the high school Tuesday morning, and Jones noted that those items are best sent to organizations that are coordinating donation drives.

Both the Dorcas Society and Goodwill in Ukiah - named Monday by Red Cross volunteers as drop-off centers - say they are not capable of handling donations. St. Mary's of the Angels Catholic Church, has stepped forward to coordinate donations.

Tiffany Revelle can be reached at udjtr@ukiahdj.com, on Twitter @TiffanyRevelle or at 468-3523.